A Class 12 girl was gang-raped in a moving vehicle in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut town by four men who offered her a lift after befriending her by referring to her chatting on a social networking site, police said on Monday.

The girl was returning to her Shashtri Nagar house on
Saturday evening after attending coaching classes when the accused, two of whom were identified as Amit Bhadana and Sumit Gurjar, offered her a lift in their sports utility vehicle, police said.

The accused referred to the girl's chatting on her Facebook account to win her trust and make her accept their offer to give her a lift in their vehicle, police said.

After covering some distance, the driver turned the vehicle towards an abandoned spot where the four accused gang-raped her. They later dumped her near PVS Mall in the town, about 70km from the national capital, police said.

"A case under section 376 of IPC has been registered against four persons. We shall arrest the two accused - Amit Bhadana and Sumit Gurjar - who were identified by the girl through photographs. The remaining two would also be arrested soon," senior superintendent of police Deepak Kumar told IANS.

A day after the incident, the accused went to the girl's house and threatened her and her younger brother not to give a police complaint about the incident, police said.

But the girl told her family about the sexual assault and a case was registered in Nauchandi area, police said.